The best call I ever took of the "wanted the competition" variety was a older lady who was convinced that every for-profit and not-for-profit health insurance company was all owned by the same parent company. Therefore, in her mind it followed logically that I, a person answering the phone at A Corp, would have access to her information on file at G Corp. When I advised her that was not the case, and she would need to talk to the people at G Corp, she got very upset and said, "I know that's not true! You're all owned by the same people, so just do whatever you have to do on your little monitor over there and tell me xyz, now!".

I just had a guest check in who is here for an off-property convention (they are just sleeping here; all the events are some place else) who had a meltdown because I don't know anything about the various seminars. Yes, well, I'm not the one who never bothered to look at the convention sheets/booklet they were sent. I can tell you the convention proper is off-property. That's all I know. There's no reason I should know any more than that.

I just had a guest check in who is here for an off-property convention (they are just sleeping here; all the events are some place else) who had a meltdown because I don't know anything about the various seminars. Yes, well, I'm not the one who never bothered to look at the convention sheets/booklet they were sent. I can tell you the convention proper is off-property. That's all I know. There's no reason I should know any more than that.

I just had a guest check in who is here for an off-property convention (they are just sleeping here; all the events are some place else) who had a meltdown because I don't know anything about the various seminars. Yes, well, I'm not the one who never bothered to look at the convention sheets/booklet they were sent. I can tell you the convention proper is off-property. That's all I know. There's no reason I should know any more than that.

I've had a similar problem. Our building is part of a university. We house an archive (that's where I work), a small art gallery, meeting space, the campus newspaper, and have a Hall that people often rent for parties, receptions, etc. I have lost count of the number of calls I've taken from people demanding information about an event put on by an outside 3rd party. I have no idea when the Smith wedding starts, and there's no reason to get snippy with me about it. I am in no way responsible for booking the space or planning events. I can transfer you to the person who does that stuff, but don't get huffy with me because I don't know the details!

I had someone call up and ask for an instruction sheet for a competitor's widget.

When I explained we only had instruction sheets for *our* widgets, and they should, perhaps, contact the competitor for their sheet, they got very annoyed, and kept repeating, "I don't understand! They're WIDGETS, and you're a widget-seller! Why don't you have instructions for all of them?"

I work for an Internet provider. I've had people think we are Provider Y or Z. I've had people call in and start saying they need things that a bank or a doctor's office can help with. I've even had a few people think I can help them make hotel or airline reservations!

The library in which I worked was a high-level art reference library. It was very specialized. Still, several times a month, we would have people drop in to pick up a book of American short stories or the like.

It was a mystery but we finally figured it out.

Signs in the Subway station directly in front of the museum stated that it was the stop for the Museum, the Botanic Garden and the main repository of the Brooklyn Public Library. The first thing a person coming out of the station saw was the museum. There were also usually museum employees outside having a smoke break. It was natural for them to ask people wearing ID tags where the library was?

It was also natural for the employees to direct these people to our Art Reference Library. Of course, we were not the place that could provide a biography of George Washington. The library they wanted was a long block down the street.

It was partially a problem of signage but we still wondered why they so readily accepted that the main library of a huge borough would be located on the second floor of a museum.

It was partially a problem of signage but we still wondered why they so readily accepted that the main library of a huge borough would be located on the second floor of a museum.

When our (small town) library was moving, we had a small, but a fairly complete branch in a small storefront for a bit and later in a back room behind by the county health department. When we lived in Larger City (over 1,000,000), one of the public branches of our library was in a school (separate entrance) and another branch was in the community center of a nearby unincorporated village. I could have popped into any of these places for a biography, a best-seller, a science fiction book, and an ethnic cookbook as long as I had my current library card. A lot of people didn't even know that these places were not the main library.So, yeah, knowing that, I might think that an art museum is a perfectly logical place to have a small, full service library on the second floor.

The library in which I worked was a high-level art reference library. It was very specialized. Still, several times a month, we would have people drop in to pick up a book of American short stories or the like.

It was a mystery but we finally figured it out.

Signs in the Subway station directly in front of the museum stated that it was the stop for the Museum, the Botanic Garden and the main repository of the Brooklyn Public Library. The first thing a person coming out of the station saw was the museum. There were also usually museum employees outside having a smoke break. It was natural for them to ask people wearing ID tags where the library was?

It was also natural for the employees to direct these people to our Art Reference Library. Of course, we were not the place that could provide a biography of George Washington. The library they wanted was a long block down the street.

It was partially a problem of signage but we still wondered why they so readily accepted that the main library of a huge borough would be located on the second floor of a museum.

Well, it is a very impressive museum.

Or maybe they'd been to the Terence Cardinal Cooke branch of the NY Public Library.

That one is tiny and tucked in next to a subway station--two flights of stairs down from the street, and half a flight above the downtown 6 platform. After that, you might think "right, this is New York City, they tuck libraries into random corners."

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Any advice that requires the use of a time machine may safely be ignored.

The store I work in is in a stip mall ahem, lifestyle center. whatever. Ther are a number of stores, and I pretty much can tell you if there is a store a or b here, but that's about all the info I have. I don't know their phone number, so if you call and ask me, sorry, I can't help you.

And no, I can't just "go online" and look it up. our registers will ONLY let us go on to our own website, no others.

My FIL has been unemployed for over 9 months. He gave a good effort for a month to find another job and really isn't trying any more. However, he bemoans his lack of a job to anyone that will stop for a minute to hear him. I found out today that he hasn't applied anywhere since June, and is no longer filling out the forms to get unemployment.

All of my sympathy for the situation he is in has dissipated. Sigh.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

My FIL has been unemployed for over 9 months. He gave a good effort for a month to find another job and really isn't trying any more. However, he bemoans his lack of a job to anyone that will stop for a minute to hear him. I found out today that he hasn't applied anywhere since June, and is no longer filling out the forms to get unemployment.

All of my sympathy for the situation he is in has dissipated. Sigh.

Sounds more snowflakey than Harry Potter, to me. Unless he's complaining to people that THEY should give him a job.

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

After a while the effort required with job searching and lack of results does get to you.

Yes, it does. I've been there, done that. However ... unless the unemployed person's salary was not necessary to maintain the household, one must pick oneself up and keep on plugging. Unemployment does not pay much, but that amount might make the difference between paying rent/mortgage or becoming homeless.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I am the primary provider in my household because my husband is disabled. I make a decent salary as a professional engineer and unemployment benefits "top out" long before they reach my salary range. I remember when I was a clerk and I had to go on unemployment, there was almost no difference between my salary after taxes and my unemployment benefits. Now, unemployment benefits don't cover my mortgage and medical insurance (a necessity with a crippled half-blind spouse). When the economy tanked and I was downsized, I got up every morning determined that "today is the day I get a job."

I heard an story, more like an Aesop's Fable because I don't know if any part of it is true. The Native Americans had Medicine Men who danced a Rain Dance during droughts. These Medicine Men claimed to have 100% success in bringing rain. A skeptic said, "How can that be?" The Medicine Man replied, "We keep dancing until it rains." Since I heard that quip, whenever I'm in a "drought" (depressed, unemployed, etc.), I remember to keep dancing until it rains.

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"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

FIL has just given up, while complaining to everyone how he needs a job and no one will hire him. We live in a very tourist high area, and he did go to a job fair last month, but it was all for hospitality jobs. We tried to encourage him when we saw him at dinner and I have offered several times different suggestions that would work with his experience and interests. He seems to think that phone calls and paper resumes will help him most, when he is looking for an IT job. Both my employer and one connected to mine require everything related to a job to be electronic, and new job postings appear weekly. He frequently forgets to check.

I have done all I can, it seems that I want him to find a job more than he wants to. That he stopped going to the effort of completing the required steps for unemployment is troubling, and I think the savings nest egg is going to run out sooner than later.

What really made me upset tonight is that he criticized a job he had seen as only making $XX,XXX per year.

That is more than I have ever made in salary and I have recently discovered that I will be making that amount and was thrilled! I have not been without a job for more than a month in 25 years.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

FIL has just given up, while complaining to everyone how he needs a job and no one will hire him. We live in a very tourist high area, and he did go to a job fair last month, but it was all for hospitality jobs. We tried to encourage him when we saw him at dinner and I have offered several times different suggestions that would work with his experience and interests. He seems to think that phone calls and paper resumes will help him most, when he is looking for an IT job. Both my employer and one connected to mine require everything related to a job to be electronic, and new job postings appear weekly. He frequently forgets to check.

I have done all I can, it seems that I want him to find a job more than he wants to. That he stopped going to the effort of completing the required steps for unemployment is troubling, and I think the savings nest egg is going to run out sooner than later.

What really made me upset tonight is that he criticized a job he had seen as only making $XX,XXX per year.

That is more than I have ever made in salary and I have recently discovered that I will be making that amount and was thrilled! I have not been without a job for more than a month in 25 years.